On Civil Society
As we gear up to celebrate Freedom to Read Week this week, I thought I’d take this opportunity to announce a new series that TPL has been hard at work creating for many months now. On Civil Society is the largest system-wide series the TPL has done and promises content that all Torontonians can enjoy. As the new series’ events, books, workshops, podcasts and more have taken shape, I am struck again at the central role that libraries play in the life of a city and a nation. As almost all of us can see on a daily basis, our societies have become highly polarized and in many ways we have forgotten how to disagree with one another. Oh, yes we argue! And we insult, we shout, we name-call. But what seems to me that we do less and less of is listen. Libraries are, in many ways, the last public spaces where disagreement is accepted and even encouraged. But even this will be lost if we don’t remember that we have to learn how to listen to each other.
On Civil Society is our chance to listen to each other once again. We will listen to ideas we agree with. We will listen to ideas we don’t agree with. We will find our way into debates and discussions that might make some of us uncomfortable. But this is what the library can offer democracy: a chance to engage in a true and sophisticated way with our fellow citizens: to hear them and to make small steps towards understanding them even when we vehemently disagree with something they believe.
The late Elliot Shelkrot, the long-time Head of the Philadelphia Public Library, once said that “Democracy depends on an informed population. And where can people get all the information they need? — At the Library.” And how do we do this? By offering the chance for people to experience what living in an intellectually free society means (one of the tenets of Freedom to Read): by accessing books with controversial ideas and unpopular opinions; by sitting in a room with hundreds of people and arguing, debating, discussing contentious issues; by taking a workshop on how to run for office even if you have no public service experience or aren’t born into the “right” family; by listening to a podcast and talking to our friends and family about a new point of view or perspective that was introduced. To me, this is the reason I am so excited about this new initiative to inform our population, as libraries are meant to do.
The photos of the people you see in our On Civil Society marketing materials are our own TPL employees. This was a deliberate choice, to send a message to Torontonians that we are you and you are us. In addition, you may notice that the marketing materials contain several hashtags. Most of us are familiar with hashtags, but we use them here in a very deliberate and precise way to ensure that we, the members of the library, are listening to you, our customers and our fellow citizens. They are meant to spark online discussions, but more than this, the hashtags are also meant to ensure a healthy debate online to discuss some of the topics that the events explore. Read a book on democracy you think we should discuss at your local TPL branch? Tweet it out with the hashtags #OnDemocracy and #OnCivilSociety and it’ll fall onto our radar for us to consider. See a video online that presents a challenging view #OntheMedia? Give us a shout on Facebook and let us know! Attend a lecture (in the library or anywhere else) that excites you and gets you fired up #OnEquality? Get us fired up, too, with a photo on Instagram and use the hashtag. We want you, the residents of Toronto, to see yourselves reflected in this series. We will be monitoring these hashtags for the entire span of the series.
We hope you will spend some time on our website for On Civil Society and check out all of the amazing content – events, podcasts, videos and workshops. The series is projected to run for several seasons and there will doubtless be something there that relates to an interest of yours: From The Death of the Expert to Could Trump Happen Here? to an event that explores the effects of gentrification in Parkdale to a discussion about race, gender and queer identity in Great Outdoor Spaces to a movie screening and talk on interracial marriage in Loving vs Loving, we hope that On Civil Society will open doors, open new avenues of discussion, teach us to listen to each other again and remind us all why we all need libraries.
14 thoughts on “On Civil Society”
Dear Vickery Bowles/TPL Staff,
Thank you for this timely initiative.
Anyone who is interested in this topic may find the following enlightening.
One of the best authors to read on politics especially in 2018 is J. Haidt. Whether you read the briefer version:
Can’t We All Disagree More Constructively?
From The Righteous Mind
Vintage Short
by Jonathan Haidt
OR
The Righteous Mind
Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
by Jonathan Haidt
The online listing describes the author’s work as follows:
“Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has done the seemingly impossible—he has explained the origins of morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to everyone on the political spectrum.”
I look forward to listening and learning from my fellow citizens. Hey “TPL readers” let’s surprise them by how many of us show up! (I’m not on twitter or facebook, I hope someone else is moved to start the conversations there).
Sincerely,
Sandra
Will there be one or more sessions on books for prisoners in Toronto?
Thank you.
Hello,
I think this is a wonderful idea and opportunity! We can’t afford to live in bubbles. There is so much to be gained in listening to a wide range of viewpoints. I hope that the talks will be accessible via the library’s website, so it can be heard by folks who can’t get to the talk when it is being given. Chi Miigwetch!
These are great suggestions! Thanks for the information and we will look into these authors and books!
We don’t have the plan as of yet to do this, but I will look into this idea. It’s a great one.
Yes, it’s all there for the spring 2018 at: tpl.ca/civilsociety
We update this site regularly with new events, content, digital content, blog posts, etc., so check back frequently to see what’s new with Civil Society at TPL.
A resident of the Ottawa community, I have been convening Conversations among Canadians, in community, for seven years in a small room at a branch of the Ottawa Public Library. When I approached the library to rent a room for the purpose, the idea of such conversations was seized and welcomed, the library volunteered space and gave the conversations the status of a library program with its attendant advertising. Convened weekly on Wednesday afternoons for two hours through all but the summer months, we who participate on any given day have talked together of many things, welcomed persons from other countries, and listened and learned much from sharing our experience and knowledge. The notion of a “great Canadian conversation” to help us all through these changing times has long been a hope of mine and others. Might such conversations, convened by Canadians in community, with the voluntary support of libraries, be a possibility do you think, related in some way to your splendid new Civil Society program?
Thanks for this excellent suggestion, Gail. It’s a great idea for us to consider incorporating into Civil Society programming in the fall that will help us “hear” opinions that we don’t often get to hear. Thanks for laying this out and giving us some suggestions to improve our new series!
Many of the events that I am seeing posted, including The Power of Angry Women, The Communist Manifesto as a Graphic Novel, and more, are in clear gross and flagrant violation of the library’s policy against hosting events likely to incite hate. I have attended numerous events where such hate was open incited, and indeed invited. Horrendous.
Of course, any intelligent person was always aware that this policy was only meant to target certain sectors of the population, and that the widespread and growing hatred of women towards men, hatred of colored people towards whites, and hatred of communists towards everyone who stands in their way would all be accommodated. It is vindicating to see this suspicion confirmed.
The city librarian should be fired with prejudice for her accomodation and endorsement of this hate, and for presenting it under the guise of “difficult conversations”, ehikenundoubwhile stacking the deck ever in favour of the cultural Marxists. I’m not even pernittpe to point to some of the proof that is laid bare in the composition of the people who contributed to the formation of this hypocritical “hate” policy, but discerning minds will see the patterns.
The rootless, globalist, Communist rot is deep in Canada. I’m so thoroughly disgusted by all of you, you are destroying our country with a smile on your black hearted faces.
We strongly encourage you and everyone to attend these events. If so, you will see that the entire point of the series is to hear all points of view and though the events your reference above have been some of our most popularly attended events in the last few weeks, even when the crowd has a particular political point of view, there is a spirit of true listening and engagement that we try hard to cultivate so that as many points of view are available in the spirit of cooperation and democratic engagement.
There is nothing hateful about any of these events or topics and dismissing them without even taking part at all is exactly what the series (which we’ve had enormous success with) is trying to counteract.
I just read a 2018 book, In Pursuit of Civility – Manners and Civilization in Early Modern England, by Keith Thomas.
I am grateful that this series is in existence. I can’t seem to spot any information as to how speakers are chosen. Or, whether there is an opportunity for folks to develop and present on topics, that fit the themes of the series, but are not currently being spoken to. Thank you again.
I greatly appreciate the existence of this series. I can’t seem to spot any information as to how speakers are chosen for the series… essentially, I am wondering whether there is an opportunity for folks to submit proposals, and then to develop and present them?
Hi there, our programming team develops the series and selects the speakers for large events. But we also have a program proposal process for events/workshops in branches across the system: https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/about-the-library/business-with-the-library/program-proposals.jsp